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Frankincense & Mistletoe

I was going to make this blog-post a light-hearted one…something about simple holiday pleasures (falling asleep while reading about Eleanor of Aquitaine) or maybe a little vignette about the deeper appreciation of Christmas, when someone you love has had cancer.

I figured – ‘who has the time, or the inclination, to read about clinical trials and cancer treatments when there’s champagne to be popped and hangovers to be nursed?’

But then… Mum came home from Ozone therapy yesterday and mentioned that one of her friends had been advised – by an American practitioner- to rub frankincense into the area where her cancer was.

So it seemed like the right time to share with you a little about how frankincense and mistletoe might help with cancer– and if you’re not in the mood, then feel free to save this for the New Year, when you’re not trying to stuff a turkey or wrap-up a skateboard.

Three Wise Men

No wonder frankincense was chosen by one of the Magi to give to baby Jesus.

Thousands of years ago it was equal in value to gold; the Ancient Egyptians, who used frankincense in many of their rituals and purification ceremonies, thought it to be the ‘sweat of the Gods’, while the Greeks and Romans used it to treat a wide variety of diseases.

Mahmoud Suhail, an immunologist, has been studying the beneficial effects of frankincense for years.

He’s currently working alongside medical scientists from the University of Oklahoma to determine just how frankincense stops cancer from spreading.

‘Cancer starts when the DNA code within the cell’s nucleus becomes corrupted,’ he explained recently in a BBC interview.

‘It seems frankincense has a re-set function. It can tell the cell what the right DNA code should be. Frankincense separates the ‘brain’ of the cancerous cell – the nucleus – from the ‘body’ – the cytoplasm, and closes down the nucleus to stop it reproducing corrupted DNA codes.’

The highest quality frankincense comes from Oman – but you needn’t cross-deserts to get hold of it – you can buy it online from Young Living Oils (be sure to order the essential frankincense oil rather than the sacred frankincense oil).

As a little aside, you might also be interested in the therapeutic benefits of the other Wise Man gift – Myrrh. It’s meant to help with sore throats, gum disorders, inflammation, digestive problems and cellulite. You can read more about it here.

Iscador, a specific extract of Mistletoe, has been used in controlled pilot studies in the Berlin University, Witten/Herdecke, Germany and the University of California, San Francisco, USA, for breast, colon, prostate, brain, intestine cancer, cervical dysplasia, ovary, stomach and lungs, and in metastasis processes.

One study, published in the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine in 2001, looked at the survival times of patients with cancer of the colon, rectum, stomach, breast and lung.

According to Dr Keith Scott-Mumby in Cancer Research Secrets there are different forms of Mistletoe based on the tree from which it is harvested. So you have M for Malus ( apple); P for Pinus (pine); Q for Quercus (oak); and U for Ulmus (elm) with each having specific benefits for different types of cancer.

So it’s worth doing your research if you’re considering adding Mistletoe to your treatment arsenal. It’s also important to note that mistletoe can be toxic and you need to find a qualified homeopath or alternative doctor who can treat you safely.

I would also like to end by saying a huge thank you for your support, stories and suggestions over the last few months. Having such lovely feedback from you has been as important to Mum as the advice from her practitioners.

May the learning and sharing continue, and may health, happiness and hope follow you all through 2012.

Laura
Please continue your ongoing research and writing this blog on into 2012! Although I am fortunate not to be a sufferer I genuinely find the blog one of the most interesting and thought provoking that I read. I have sent this on to several colleagues who have also subscribed. All the best of continued good health to your mother and Gnocchi.
Regards
Kate

Thank you so much Kate for taking the time to forward my blog onto colleagues – and for your well wishes! I hope you had a lovely relaxing Christmas too. The next blog will appear on the 11th of Jan ( after a mini hiatus). I’ve been speaking to some very inspirational healers over the last few weeks and can’t wait to share their wisdom with you. Best wishes for the NY x

Merry Xmas to you and your mum,
I look forward to your very interesting emails, thank you. For being so informative about everything ,there is a lit out there but I suppose you have to do what’s right for you at the end of the day,
It’s good to have some control. With your life when cancer comes along,it’d a scary road and a lonely one too, so I look forward to hearing from you , your mother is lucky to have a wonderful daughter like you Laura,
Happy and healthy new year to you all
Helen

Thank you for this uplifting blog/post. I had wondered why I’d bought some frankincense back in the summer after conventional treatment for breast cancer. Now I know. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, in love and light, June

This was so interesting ! As an ex nurse who thought there had to be a better option to “standard ” cancer treatments, your blogs are really inspiring…thankyou for sharing your knowledge & your mum’s journey. All the VERY best.

Merry Christmas Gemma & Laura…what a lovely photo of the two of you. Thank you for all your informative blogs over the past 2 months……..have a Happy, Safe & Healthy 2012 (give a hug to Gnocchi for me). xx

Thank you for putting together this brave and fantastic blog. It has all the information I have gradually become aware of over the past few months, plus more, all in one place and is written in such a wonderful contemporary way that it feels accessible and non ‘new-worldy’. I feel I can forward this to my friends without them thinking I’m a quack!

My partner is currently undergoing conventional treatment for head and neck cancer but I’ve been encouraging him to do supplementary therapies as well, such as taking the apricot kernals (you’re right, this site and many of the treatments you discuss, are not just of use for people deciding to totally avoid conventional methods). But Gemma, you will be pleased to hear that my mother successfully cured herself from bladder cancer seven years ago without chemotherapy, radiotherapy or invasive surgery. She fully recovered within a matter of months without any side-effects and remains cancer-free to this day, with no negative after-affects from her treatment. She is extremely fit and well and doesn’t need to take any drugs of any kind. It is her experience that has encouraged me to introduce my partner to the alternatives.

He takes it in tablets and also in a powder called Ultimate Greens (which also contains chlorella, that is supposed to have similar properties).

Regarding chemotherapy – he has had two sessions and is seriously considering not having the final session. He is coming to the conclusion that the negative aspects outweigh any good it is supposed to do. It stops him from eating for several days so he becomes weak and under-nourished, he feels generally ill and depressed and he puts himself at risk of getting life-threatening complications such as pneumonia. The thing that angers me about chemotherapy is that so many of his friends beg him to continue because they think if he doesn’t he will die. I don’t know how it has got into everyone’s collective mindset that survival from cancer means subjecting yourself to one the most horrendous treatments imaginable, when research suggests that you are improving your five year survival rate’ by 3% on average (varying with different types of cancers). And that doesn’t take into account all the side-effects that these survivors may be suffering from as a result, or the fact the chemotherapy can cause further cancer along the line.

Should I get cancer I think I’d rather take my chances with the likes of Vitamin C and apricot kernals than torture myself for maybe, if I’m lucky, a 10% chance of ‘recovery’. But telling friends that you are not doing chemotherapy is like telling them you are going to go and jump off the nearest bridge. They think that you have decided to give up and die rather than fight the disease. That is why blogs like this are so important because then maybe we can try to adjust the popular perception of chemotherapy and allow people to think that maybe there is another much more humane way of treating this disease.

Thank you so much Eleanor for taking the time to write. I can’t tell you how uplifting it was to learn that your mother successfully cured herself from bladder cancer naturally – seven years ago. May I ask what sort of things she used to heal her body? Has she always been into alternative therapies? One of things a lot of the experts seem to say is that unless you’ve been brought up in a family where natural therapies are the norm, it’s very, very hard to see the inherent flaws in conventional medicine – even when the evidence is as clear as day.

Just last week I was re-listening to Mike Adams lecture from the Healing Cancer World Summit (www.renegadehealth.com/cancer/blog/tag/healing-cancer-world-summit) and he was asked by Kevin Gianni ‘How do you introduce family members to other options?’ and he said ‘ You can’t. You can’t help family members who are invested psychologically in the culture of fear, which is conventional cancer treatment.’ That really rang true for me.

It must be incredibly frustrating for you to see your partner suffer the side effects of chemotherapy, but it sounds like you’ve managed to convince him of the importance of super-charging the immune system while he’s undergoing treatment. It’s interesting you mention he’s taking spirulina – Mike Adams talks about how fantastic spirulina is for protecting healthy cells in the lecture I mentioned.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your story Eleanor, I’m wishing you and your partner the very best for 2012!

Dear Laura, I’m sorry I have only just seen your reply otherwise I would have written sooner. Regarding my mother, I am going to ask her to reply separately because I think that the information is best coming from the horse’s mouth, but I do know that she religiously took apricot kernals after being diagnosed; cut out sugar of any form and went onto a raw food diet.

And yes, she has for a long time taken alternative remedies. I always used to joke that my parents would outlive me because they took so many supplements and had such a healthy vegetarian diet. But now that they are in their sixties and still incredibly fit and healthy without requiring any medication whatsoever I am not laughing anymore and am starting to follow their example.

Though of course they had already influenced me to some extent, so when my partner Fabio was diagnosed with cancer we had some battles at first because I wanted him to try the alternative route first. But then I realized that the alternatives probably wouldn’t work for him because you have to truly believe in them; plus it was his battle not mine, so, I supported him with his choice of conventional therapy.

I felt a bit useless at times because all the vitamins and books I’d bought him were being tactfully ignored so it was quite disheartening to not be able to help him with information that I thought would be beneficial. But when he ultimately decided not to have the third chemotherapy session I realized that I probably have helped him to reach this point by the information I had given him previously.

And, this sounds over-dramatic, but I think that refusing to have the third chemotherapy session may have saved his life. He had his final radiotherapy session today and he is so weak that he is being kept in hospital on a drip to try and re-nourish him. His body has already been going into shock in the past couple of days every time he vomits because of the accumulative effects of ultimately 35 doses of radiation. If it had been facing the chemicals of chemotherapy on top of everything else I really don’t think it could have handled it.

If people think I’m being over-pessimistic, consider that on the same day that Fabio was scheduled for the chemotherapy a friend of mine in Israel passed away, from cancer complications. He was just 30 years old and previously physically fit and well. I asked how he had died and was told it was from liver failure caused by the chemotherapy drugs he was receiving.

Incidentally, when Fabio’s oncologist was persuading him to change his mind he asked her how much his chances of survival would be diminished by not having the chemotherapy session, and she said ‘5%’. What I don’t understand is why an intelligent, educated medical professional would get so upset about him choosing not to have chemotherapy, with all the associated risks, for a 5% difference in survival rates . It just doesn’t make sense to me. My only explanation is that people are brainwashed by the drugs companies to think that radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy are the only answers.

So my message to any other care-givers out there who want to encourage less conventional means of therapy to someone wanting to go down the traditional route is not to think that it is in vain. You may have to temper what you say so as not to really scare them when they are already terrified, and I recommend relaying the information gradually so that he or she isn’t overwhelmed by it. But it may just have enough of an impact to make a difference. I wish I’d been brave enough to have been more outspoken with my Israeli friend, but from now on I’m sending the link to this blog to everyone, whether they have cancer or not, because it might just help someone they know make a more educated choice.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes
Eleanor

Hi Gemma,
I’ve been reading your blog on and off for a couple of months. This is the first time I’m leaving my comments, as for the last four weeks I was in Spain in the Budwig Center. I’m fighting the liver cancer and while it’s going to be a lifelong battle, I’m sure that I can win this one. Fortunately for me I have a very strong support system in my wife, Thea, most of our kids, I have two step children, aged 24 and 26 and two sons 20 and 26. The only fly in the ointment is my older son, who wishes me well of course, but as a 3rd year med student is as narrow minded as most doctors. He thinks that anything that doesn’t have a multimillion dollar study behind it is just charlatanery and questioned even the milk thistle as a bogus supplement, something that’s been researched thoroughly and proven effective. He visited me in Malaga and declared I should be doing something rather than nothing. My own hepatologist said to me a couple of months ago to write a will, live it up and not to forget to buy myself quickly a burrial plot at the local cemetary in Brisbane where I live. He reckoned I had three months or so to live. Needless to say, I refused all his ideas about “treatments” which included paliative care and lots of chemo that would statistically prolong my life expectancy by six weeks. Fortunately I’ve been interested in natural therapies for over twenty years, ever since I helped Paul, my older son, yes the same one who is going to be a doctor in a year, heal himself from childhood asthma by using acupuncture and moxibustion, the treatment took about six months and now he claims that there was no proof it helped, he simply “outgrew” it. I’m not writing this to camplain, I sort of knew this would be his attitude, but to illustrate the point how brain washed the doctors are, not willing to give even a passing thought to the possibility that they may be wrong. I bought him a book on Amazon about the life of Hippocrates. Like yourself, or rather your daughter, I’m writing a blog http://www.cancer-naturally.com.au/blog. Please visit it and have a glance at my experiences. My blog is still work in progress.

I’ve just spent the last hour having a read through your wonderful blog. It seems we share similar views on a lot of things- like the importance of detoxing heavy metals and of coffee enemas. I was interested to read your post about the Papimi machine – I wonder if it works in a similar way to the Rife Machine?

It sounds as if you’ve managed to maintain a very positive outlook, despite the disease, and from what I can see from the recent photo you posted, you’re looking well too!

I’m glad to hear you have a strong support team behind you, and, even if your older son isn’t entirely on board with your decisions, I’m sure that through your journey he’s being forced to open his eyes just a little more.

Thanks for taking the time to write to me and I look forward to reading more about your journey. Very best wishes, Laura

Hi Laura and Gemma,
Greetings from Cancer Awakens!
We think you are awesome!
Yes, you read that right.
You’re awesome because you’ve been through the cancer journey and come out a winner. Not only that, you care enough to share about your journey so that others can benefit. Now, that’s what we call a cancer thriver!
What is Cancer Awakens?
Cancer Awakens was born because Bangalore-based Cancer Coaches, Vijay and Nilima Bhat were keen start a community to share their learning and perspectives gained over the last 9 years. In 2001, Vijay was diagnosed with colon-cancer. Not wanting to be a ‘statistic’, Nilima and Vijay began to study the lives of those rare individuals who have successfully lived beyond cancer.
To know more about Cancer Awakens click here http://slidesha.re/rLBcb5
We wish to feature your story
By featuring those who have outlived cancer we can spread the message of hope. All you have to do is answer a few questions and send us a photograph with the permission to publish your story on our website http://www.cancerawakens.com. We currently have a growing community of over 1500 monthly visitors on our website and also run active social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. Our mission is to reach as wide an audience as possible.
If this sounds interesting please write back with – Yes! I want to contribute! as the subject line to cancerawakens@gmail.com and we will email you with a few questions.
Thanks
The Cancer Awakens Team

Laura, I have read your blog. I too having cancer in both lungs, have read and researched on the computer, except when asking doctors they really don’t want to give to much information. You have enlighted me and I shall make sure I get more answers than they want to give. Prayers for you and your family.

Happy New Year Kathrin! Thank you so much for sharing that video. Absolutely inspirational – I’m a huge fan of Dr Coldwell, but I never knew his mother cured herself of liver cancer through alternative medicine. Best wishes, Laura

Dear Laura,
Thanks for your blog. I do find it very interesting reading. If only cancer was a one-size-fits-all disease. My Mum’s cancer was very aggressive and she was very ill at diagnosis, so a quick-fire round of chemo helped to stabilise her and gave us a few extra months with her.
But, in other cases, the role of anti-inflammatory foods and supplements does help, maybe not always to shrink tumours but definitely to keep the disease under control.
Good luck with your work in keeping non-chemo treatments in the news.
With best wishes to you and your Mum,
Lesley x.

Hi Laura
Firstly thank you for doing this for your mum and also for sharing your experiences/ research with others. I have followed your blog for a few months and have been amazed at the amount of alternative treatments, diets, interactions there are for people dealing with cancer. I work in a oncology/palliative setting and have at times passed on your web site and following to the people I come in contact with. I feel it is so important to be active in your treatment and feeling knowledgable enough to make your own health decisions, which may be contemporay or alternative measures or even compliment on going treatment. I feel that the cancer journey is really a personal one and that the more information we obtain, the better decision making we can make. Thank you for your ongoing informative blog and best wishes to your Mum.
Sonje

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Mum and I are constantly amazed at just how many alternative cancer treatments are out there! I hope I don’t overwhelm readers with too many options – the idea was to share a bit about some of the things we’ve come across and, if something resonates with a reader, they can go and investigate it a little further.

I totally agree with you that people need to be in the driving seat of their own cancer journey – and that means choosing a treatment that feels right for them, whatever that may be.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience Sonje and for passing this blog onto others!

‘Mum’s Not Having Chemo’ by Laura Bond - available in all good bookshops

Detox Your Home

May 15, 2018

It’s easy to be so overwhelmed by the toxic soup we’re surrounded by – the flame-retardants from the sofa, the wifi connecting us to the world – that we choose to do nothing. But even if you do one thing, like order a water filter, it can go a long way to reducing your toxic load. Here are two simple changes you can make today.

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Disclaimer

All material on this website is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this publication; readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and wellbeing.

Disclaimer

All material in this blog is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this publication; readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and wellbeing. The blog is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Laura Bond and Gemma Bond.

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